KANSAS CITY, Mo.– The Chiefs’ went to bed Sunday night with a winning record for the first time since Week 1.
The team has struggled this season, and hasn’t lived up to the winning ways fans expect from Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelce, and the rest of the AFC Champions. Yet no one has shied away from questions about their performance this season.
Now with a record of 5-4, the Chiefs are tied with Denver for third place in the AFC West. The Chiefs also have the same number of wins as the Chargers and the Raiders. If they can fix some of their issues, it’s clear the Chiefs still have plenty of time to earn, at least, a Wildcard spot in the playoffs this season.
“We’ve come back from worse and we have Patrick Mahomes so what do we have to worry about?” Regan Stratton, Chiefs fan, said.
But hundreds of fans aren’t happy with what they’re seeing on the field. They’re so unhappy that as of Sunday morning more than 400 people had signed a Change.org petition to bench star quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
“I’m gonna guess about 399 of those signatures come out of Denver and Vegas, so I’m not worried about it at all,” Troy Majors, Chiefs fan, said following Sunday afternoon’s win.
Ian Haywood of St. Joseph, Mo., started the petition.
“The Kansas City Chiefs are 3-4 starting out the 2021 NFL season. This is the worst start that the Chiefs have had in their first 7 games since 2015 in which they went 1-6. Are we going to put all of the blame on Patrick Mahomes? Absolutely.” Haywood wrote.
By Sunday night nearly 800 people had added their names to Haywood’s petition. But other fans in Chiefs Kingdom were shocked to hear about Haywood’s idea to bench Mahomes and start Chad Henne.
“It’s absurd. You can’t bench Patrick, nor can you bench anyone else on this team. This is a good team. There are down days, and they’ve gotta pick it up and they’re gonna pick it up. And you know, this is just the beginning of it,” Francis Jones, Chiefs Fan, said.
Ironically, this petition comes 4-years after another Chiefs fan started a petition to bench then-Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith and give Mahomes his first NFL start.